Well, after looking at a bunch of trucks on the forum I decided to take the FX4 stickers off my bed sides. They came off no problem and the little remaining sticky stuff cleaned up fine. But.....the paint doesn't match where the stickers were. I was worried about this as the truck is an '08 but I went for it anyway. It's a black truck by the way. And it does look cleaner/nicer/cooler without the stickers IMO.

Anyway, what do I do now? From a distance it's not that noticeable but up close or in the right light you can easily see where the stickers were. Will a wax job help? Should I get it detailed and buffed/wheeled/whatever? I am not a body and paint guy by any stretch of the imagination so I would really appreciate any suggestions. Let's qualify that; suggestions other than put new stickers back on

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

 

When I removed mine I just used some Windex and a microfiber and wiped them really good. They had been on my truck since new 3yrs. (when I removed them) and there is no sign they were ever there.
*Not saying this will work for you but it did for me.*

 

I want to say this has been covered before, but not sure. Do a search in the care & detailing forum. You're probably going to need some form of paint correction to remove the ghosting.

 

Hold on....Hold on.... slow down. What exactly is a search?

 

I'd explain it but seeing as you're a yankee from NORTH Carolina, you probably wouldn't understand.

 

shoot I love the FX4 stickers, I woulda left it on. Its the STX stickers that look cheesy and ugly to me.. thats why I took mine off. If my truck sat up more Id put on a FX4 sticker haha, those and FX2 stickers look good imo.

Yeah Id say just wash and wax it and you shouldnt have any issue seeing where it was before.. but if so just start steppin up the cleaning method.. buff it I guess

 

u need a detail. buffing ur truck should take care of any inconsistencies in the paint. i detail boats professionally and you should see the before and after results of some of these things that have sat out in the sun for years with no care to the paint, it sorta looks like camo between the white hazy areas and the paint that hasnt faded as much. a little love with the buffer and everything is back to one solid color, 99% of the time as good looking as the day it was purchased

 

Yeah, yeah, the infamous do a search response. I knew I would get that one as soon as I hit "submit". And you're right, there is a bunch of stuff in the detailer forum about this topic. But what fun would it be to just read other peoples posts all the time? You gotta submit your own once in a while, right?

And I wasn't exactly clear when I described my situation but you guys seem to know what I was getting at. The paint where the sticker was is just glossier/shinier than the paint around it. It's not discolored. So as some of you suggested a good restore/detail should even the shine right back out? I'm leery of doing it myself since I never have before so this might be a time I'm better off opening the wallet to get it done by a pro.

Thanks for the help.

 

Because it's been covered in depth. It's like the daily "how big of a tire can i fit" threads.

Without actually seeing your truck it's hard to say, but you can probably get by with a good polish and take care of your problem since your truck is fairly new. You could take it to a pro, but where's the fun in that? Sure the initial outlay for detailing supplies and a machine is more than what a pro would charge but you'll get the nice warm fuzzy feeling knowing you did it yourself. I enjoy detailing mine and my families vehicles.

 

Don't take it to a pro do it yourself. Watch these videos, buy the product and get-r-dun. I have not been using Adams products very long but they are awsome and are super easy to use.

http://www.adamspolishes.com/t-videos.aspx

 

Get a bottle of Scratch out and rub the area, it should blend OK.

 

Thanks again for the comments. I'll try some of your suggestions to blend in those sticker spots and let you know how it works out. As you all suggested, I'll do it myself. It'll save me some $$ and I'll learn the right way to do this as well.